World record skill parlayed into family business

Flower Mound, Texas, resident Gary Cole holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the most faces painted in one hour by an individual, painting a total of 217 different faces, using a minimum of three colors per face in Livingston, West Lothian, UK on 1 September 2007. His record remains unchallenged.

“I have participated in the Guinness world record twice. The first time I was 4th place. During that cycle there seemed to be a new opportunity to challenge the record two or three times a year. The last time I participated, I almost doubled the previous record and that put it way out of the range of most people. Even now, people try to beat it each year and never even come close. My record has remained firm since 2007.

“Like in most Guinness records there are tricks, skills and competitiveness. As one would guess, it gets harder and harder to break a record. At this time there are only a few people in the world even capable of beating my record and there just has not been a venue to do it. Hopefully if that happens, I’ll have the opportunity to defend my title,” said Cole, owner and operator of Party Faces Inc., a full service entertainment company offering face painting, ballooning, spin art and other services.

An artist, Cole came by this unusual skill in the pursuit of his business of making and selling face paint. While demonstrating his product in craft stores, customers often asked if he did private parties.

“By the sheer volume of requests, I knew right away that it had some potential. We started doing private events and festivals and it was lucrative. I wanted to separate the product side of the business from the service side of face painting so I incorporated Party Faces as a company in 1994.”

Party Faces is a family business in the most traditional sense of the term, although that wasn’t the idea in the beginning. “Initially it was not meant to be a family business, as my wife and the kids were not involved. It was a product of evolution. I started getting too busy to run both companies and considered selling off Party Faces,” said Cole.

When his wife, Joanie, showed an interest in taking over the management of staff and bookings, Party Faces became a family business, providing their six children with a great opportunity to learn the lessons of hard work and responsibility while earning money.

“As the children grew to a work age, it was just a great opportunity for them. They could flip hamburgers for minimum wage or work in the family business for $25 an hour— so it became an easy decision for most of them. The work is fairly easy to learn so all of the children have been involved in one form or another. On festival weekends they could earn $500 or more so it was a win/win,” said Cole, a fifty-year resident of North Texas.

While earning pocket money was a definite plus growing up, the Cole’s daughter, Melissa Caldwell, values the life lessons learned far more. “Being able to see all the extra time and effort put in by my parents to keep the business running was a good example to me of working hard for something, even when it is not always fun or easy.

“I think working together in the family business gave us extra opportunities to spend time together and that brought us closer. We also shared some memorable experiences with each other—some because they were fun or funny and some because they were kind of miserable— that only could have come through doing a job together.”

“While we are not rich by any means,” said Cole, “we have been able to earn a comfortable living with the face painting world as one of our sources of income. People are always amazed at how well we do for being involved in such a strange niche. I always say ‘it is a weird niche, but a good one.’ There are worse things in the world than offering a product or service that puts smiles on the faces of children. Like every career out there, it has ups and downs. Running your own business is not for the faint of heart and not meant for everyone. One has to wear a lot of hats, especially in a small business. The key is to be well-rounded. Like most owners there have been sleepless nights worrying about how we would make next week’s payroll but somehow we always pull a rabbit out of a hat. I get to express my artist’s nature in a fun job that has blessed my life and my family’s life.”

Crediting their faith, the Coles, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are quick to express gratitude for their success. “We work in the entertainment industry,” said Joanie Cole. “In this industry weekends make up most of the profit. We have always sought to keep the Sabbath day holy and to give our employees time to be with their families. We have had to turn down a lot of Sunday business. But the Lord has blessed us and we haven’t felt it was a sacrifice at all.”

“While we enjoy our income, it really is a means to an end,” said Gary. “Family has always been the priority.”